


Loyalty Across Time

by Chickygirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU Incest, AU siblings, Alternate Universe - Twins, Dark Hermione Granger, F/M, Multi, Pseudo-Incest, Pureblood Hermione Granger, multi-pairing, polyfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:08:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21640105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chickygirl/pseuds/Chickygirl
Summary: The choices of one man, Albus Dumbledore, eventually became the downfall of the wizarding world as he rips apart from the Dark Lord and the one person who could have tempered him: his sister.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Severus Snape, Hermione Granger & Tom Riddle, Hermione Granger & Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Tom Riddle, Hermione Granger/Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Hermione Granger/Tom Riddle/Severus Snape
Comments: 14
Kudos: 231





	1. Chapter 1

**A Loss of Identity Within the Past**

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, The Great Hall, 1943_

" _I'm going to go lay down," a curly haired girl whispered in the boy's ear who sat beside her dressed in silver and green. A boy who looked remarkably similar to her in the way that they had the same cold grey eyes that only held warmth for each other, as well as sharp boned cheeks and a chin that obviously made them siblings. Even if you couldn't tell from their looks that they had been born to the same woman on the same day, of the same year, both teens with the dashing looks had an absolutely uncanny way of coercing someone to do anything that they desired._

" _I'll be up in a while, love," the boy said, his eyes melting from the frigidness of staring down the wandering eyes of the boys who often found their eyes straying to his sister too much for his liking, although he would never be so obvious as to outright glare at them. Nothing so blatant as that at all._

_Chuckling, the girl gave the boy a swift kiss right beside his mouth, a thing in which was too close for simply being platonic siblings and many found odd yet simply forced their eyes from the couple. "Try not to maim or kill anyone tonight Tom, Dumbledore is already growing suspicious enough of us without every boy who talks to me disappearing."_

_Smirking, Tom just picked up his sister's hand in his own before placing a kiss on it and turning back to his dinner, "Yes, Ma'am."_

_Still smiling as she walked out of the Great Hall, ignoring the whispers and hidden eyes following her small form, she was suddenly pulled forcibly into a dark alcove just before the stairs leading down to the dungeons. Far from where Tom was, too far from her brother._

" _I'm sorry Hermione, you will only make him stronger in the years to come," Hermione heard a familiar voice whisper in her ear as she realized she was incapacitated with her head steadily going uncomfortably fuzzy along with a peculiar feeling in her navel beginning to grow. The last thought within her conscious mind being that of her beloved brother's smiling grey eyes._

_Her heartbeat began to increase in rare panic, along with the one she has always been able to feel within her twin's own body like a phantom limb being carried around with her always, his voice echoing her name in her head before it faded entirely._

_Gone._

_Her body ultimately giving way under the insistent pull of the darkness enveloping her, all that was left of her existence within the year of 1943 being a goblin silver necklace of an emerald eyed snake slithering in and out of the eyes of a skull, a tiny black lavender nestled in the grinning mouth. Along with the panic of Tom Riddle who found the piece of jewelry once the pain of his twin's heartbeat slowing beside his own had receded as if it were never there, only a dark hole of nothingness being left to take it's place. The young boy vowing to the gods that he would burn everything and everyone before believing himself to never again see the other half of his soul._

~.O.~

**A New Life**

_Muggle London, 1979_

"Isn't she beautiful?" Sheila Granger asked her husband, in her arms a wrapped pink bundle containing a beautiful little girl by the name Hermione Jean Granger. Sprouts of dark curly haired spirals already beginning to take form upon the head that would eventually look as if it were mocking a lions mane, the babe was as quiet as can be, even coming into the world from her mother's womb.

"She takes after her mother," Mark Granger told his wife, who looked up at him with an adoring smile, then back to the curly haired babe cradled to her hospital gown covered chest. The only sign of her father in her being that dark shade of said curls that made up the tuft upon her small palm sized head.

As the babe involuntarily gripped the man's finger, his eyes teared up just a bit. "She's our little miracle Sheils. The Gods gifted us a little girl."

"She's going to be extraordinary Mark," she said, as her newborn's eyes opened to reveal the most breathtakingly smoky colored eyes she had ever seen. "Absolutely extraordinary," the new mother said while running a gentle finger along the babe's tiny rooting cheek and failing limbs that searched for another miniature sized hand that had been curiously absent within her previous safe and cozy home.

_She was never meant to come into the world alone… the gods had never intended it to be as such…_

..

Hermione Granger was indeed going to become extraordinary as her parents had always told her she would be, but at this moment in time she didn't think it was a good thing. She never felt as if she had really belonged, not even with the parents who loved and adored her to the ends of the earth, but she couldn't help but feel as if something was missing. As if the life she was living wasn't meant to be, _someone_ was missing from her small world, someone who was always meant to be right beside her and just simply wasn't.

The only time she didn't feel this was when she dreamt. When she dreamt of another life, one where she lived happily no matter the unhappiness surrounding her on all sides while in the midst of one war or another. One where a boy walked the earth with her, a boy who she felt she belonged with no matter what. He soothed her within her mind even during her waking hours whenever the other children ridiculed her for her bookishness and oddness within reality, he loved her, and he was the only thing that felt real.

~.O.~

**A Little Too Close**

_Wool's Orphanage, 1937_

_Hermione didn't like sleeping alone, not at all. The orphanage blankets had always been scratchy even on sensitive baby skin, and didn't offer much warmth while the lumpy mattress was not at all comfortable, and no other girls would be bunked in the same room as they were all scared of her._

_What she really wanted was her brother's warmth and scent surrounding her._

_Silently stepping out of bed, her little feet carried her shivering body covered in only a thin white nightdress to the door down the hall and slipped inside, closing it softly behind her as to not alert the matron she was where she wasn't supposed to be. Inside, a pale skinny boy similar to her lay wide awake, also not accepting sleep without his twin wrapped with him in warmth. He was bunked in his own room as well, the boys all scared of him as all the girl were of her. Slipping into the small bed with her brother, the girl immediately stopped shivering as he wrapped his arms around her, her legs tangling around his as an unnatural warmth filled the air around them as their magic recognized it's twin. A little something they had learned their second year at their new school for magical witches and wizards._

" _Better love?" the boy asked into his sister's mass of curls just a few shades lighter than his own black ones, her head bobbing slightly as she tucked her face into his warm chest before finally allowing the sandman to pull them under._

" _I don't like it that they separated us, Tommy," she muttered sleepily into his chest as he kissed the top of her head and tangled the hand not around her waist into it._

_Night turned into day, and the siblings didn't awake until a plump unpleasant woman pulled them both out of bed, screeching that it was indecent for siblings to be sleeping in the same bed in the teenage years they were at. Taken outside, the siblings were whipped with a switch they had picked themselves until they promised to never do it again, although they would never admit they most certainly would. Tom had so wanted to burn the matron's fingers off for touching his sister, but she stayed his hand, knowing that while scaring the other children was just fine, the woman who made sure they were fed as little as they were was not._

" _I'm sorry I didn't wake up earlier 'Mione," Tom said, carefully pulling the thin dress away from the dried blood on his sister's back, making her hiss in displeasure._

" _I could have woken up too Tommy, it's not your fault," she said, straightening in the yellow light of the bathroom, now naked except for her white cotton panties speckled with blood._

_Turning to unbutton her brother's nightshirt and pull it off him, not at all uncomfortable being naked in her presence as one might have been, or at his wandering eyes. They were simply too comfortable with each other for bashfulness. Reaching up as he was a good half foot taller than her already, she put a hand on his now bare shoulder to help pull his arms out of his sleeves, his eyes not flinching a bit at the slight sting of the cloth separating from his open wounds. Turning him around with her hands resting lightly on the top of his shoulders, she called forth on the advanced magic they shared and ran them lightly down his back, causing him to shiver as the wounds knitted closed before Hermione's eyes._

_Angling back to where she was again standing in front of him, Tom grabbed her hips taking care of the sharp marks that had managed to wrap around them as he lightly kissed the corner of her mouth while her arms twisted around his waist._

" _I should have healed you first, love."_

" _They don't hurt that much anymore. There's just throbbing."_

_Pulling her closer to him to where their bare chests were compressed together, he healed her back much in the same way she did him. His large hands warming her spine from the frigid air outside, all the while his chest warming her breasts from where they had pebbled within the winter air._

_As their arms wrapped more securely around each other, Tom made her a promise he had every intention of keeping until a man who claimed to be of the light took her away from him. "I will never let anyone hurt you again Hermione. For as long as I love you, I will always protect you; and I will love you until after death. That is a promise."_

_Looking up into her brother's face, her twin, her hands cupped his face and brought their foreheads together._

" _Do you promise me always Tommy?"_

" _I promise you always, love."_

~.O.~

**The Heir**

She never told her parents about the voice in her head, even though she knew it wasn't natural for a voice to be in one's head telling her to stab her bullies with the teacher's scissors. But it was in the tone of the boy she often dreamt of, so she had no reason to distrust him. Her Tom who she so yearned for. Or when she started understanding what snakes talked of as they slithered around in the safety of the tall grass.

" _Pretty human. Pretty girl. Pretty warm skin to crawl around on."_ Hermione heard a voice hidden on the ground of her parent's garden one day while sitting plucking the petals off one of her mother's full red roses. Dropping them all around her as if they were droplets of blood.

Looking down, she saw a small black scaled snake with a light blue-grey belly lifting it's head, sticking it's black forked tongue out to her.

" _Look my love,"_ Tom whispered in her head, " _he likes us. They always like us."_

"Hello," the girl said to the snake, holding out her arm for it to crawl up.

" _Nice girl,_ " the snake hissed up to her while curling around the appendage, that midnight colored tongue flicking out to taste her scent.

..

" _Look at all the shops Tom!" Hermione said excitedly, pulling on the hand said boy was holding onto in the direction of one of the book stores. "So many books!"_

" _I'm sure Hogwarts will have plenty of books, Hermione," he said, smiling indulgently at his twin while pulling her in the direction of Ollivander's Wand Shoppe._

" _Ohh, twins," a man with blonde hair all about his head said as soon as they walked in, "I've just the thing. Haven't had twins in a while."_

_The brother and sister glanced at each other then back to the man who they assumed was the owner, Ollivander, who was busy opening long thin boxes from seemingly random places. Hearing him cheer in joy, the couple turned back from observing the shop._

_Two wands were held out in front of them, Tom taking his in his right hand and Hermione in her left as they still held hands in the middle._

_Ollivander explained the making, "13 and ½ inches for the boy 10 and ½ inches for the girl, outer beech, with a phoenix feather core from the same-" he broke off to stare in wonder at the magic that flowed from the two wands._

_Shiny dark silver magic flowed from Hermione's wand and amber gold leaked from Tom's, coming together to form a snake-like form of magic that admitted sensual magic as it flowed around Ollivander's head, peaking it's tongue out to flick him on the cheek. Yanking his head away from it to stare awed with a flicker of fear at the two standing before him, both looking decidedly calm at the advanced magic they did as if it were an everyday occurance, he hastily pushed them out stating they were both free of charge._

_Stepping out into the sun, they smirked at each other before wrapping their arms more securely around each other and pushing through the bustling street towards Knockturn Alley. The one street they were told to stay away from by the professor who had shown them the way into Diagon Alley before pushing through the crowds himself with a hasty word back about meeting at the pub in an hour. The pub he had already been making way for._

_Making their way into the pet shop, they looked disinterested at the shaggy cats, ruddy owls, and oozing toads until their eyes stopped right at the only animal they were interested in. A nest of snakes. A medium sized red mother laying curled by the glass in the minimal sun shining through the glass window front, along with many of her offspring piled atop each other. These were also not what caught their eyes. A slightly larger silver-grey snakelet lay curled up away from her brothers and sisters, keeping to the shadows in the moist damp. Feeling like she was being watched, the wee one raised her head and made eye contact with the ones she knew were going to be her new owners._

" _I want to name her Nagini, Tom," Hermione said as she caressed their new familiar against her cheek as Nagini made a hiss of pleasure when Tom also reached to touch her adoringly._

" _As you wish my love," he replied, kissing her temple and leading them to get fitted for their new school robes._

~.O.~

**An Expected Visit**

Hermione stared at the long white bearded figure perched across from her on her parent's white couch, the two bells tying said beard jingling merrily as he talked. She didn't know how to feel, she didn't know _what_ she was feeling. He looked at her with warm eyes, but there was a sort of cautiousness behind the twinkling in his blue eyes. He had come to tell her and her muggle parents she was a witch, a magical witch. She hadn't outright been told by Tom, only given few memories that hinted at extraordinary things, but one of this man ripping her from the person she loved most in the world stood out against the others. He said they had to pace themselves with her memories of them being different from everyone else, any other bombardment of the past would war with her aspects of reality. Her two worlds colliding too fast would not be very fun.

She was to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the man told her, as if she had not known for years already.

Headmaster Dumbledore assured her parents she would be in safe hands, but she didn't feel comforted at all. She was unsettled, as if he knew something about her, but it wasn't possible. However, maybe it was, he was the one to put her in the exact place she was in at this moment instead of at her brother's side, wherever he was.

_How much of what he had done to them did he actually know the consequences of? Did he know of the piece of her brother living beside her soul, the piece that had taken the place of the heartbeat that should have been there?_

"Calm yourself, love," Tom placated in her ear. "I will take care of you."

"You're in my head, Tom," she told him, despite the warmth driving the dread in her stomach away with his words.

"In a way," he chuckled, "But not in a way. You will know soon enough, but not too soon. We would not want him to think we have anything to hide, would we?"

"Everyone has something to hide, Tommy," she told him, watching Dumbledore about to depart, shaking her parent's hands. "You hide plenty from me."

"With good reason, my love."

"I will see you soon Hermione, I just know you will love Hogwarts," he told her, reaching out his hands to shake her's, rearing back a bit when she gripped it a little too tight than a girl would for her age who normally had some regard to shyness, and her eyes flashed into one's' older than her years for a moment.

"Yes, headmaster," she said, smiling politely at his reaction. "I'm sure I will."

Dumbledore left with a wary air about him, only slightly palpable. Seeing he had a very real reason to be on his toes around the girl so similar to the one that had disappeared so long ago. Hermione's parents cooed over their miracle baby, now knowing for a fact she was going to be just extraordinary.

..

_Platform 9 ¾, 1991_

Three weeks after Albus Dumbledore appeared on her doorstep, Hermione boarded the Hogwarts Express on her way to the castle which she had so many dreams of. Looking for a compartment, she found that she had the same warmth growing in her chest as she has when she talked to Tom, as if his heartbeat thundered within her ears once more. But not quite. Any fabricated link could never compare to the realness of the original.

" _Follow it, 'Mione,"_ he told her, " _He is important."_

So she did.

Stepping outside a compartment with a red-headed boy marked with dirt on his nose, and a boy with messy black hair covering his forehead, she opened the door before asking to sit there as all the others were full. They let her, even though they did not particularly speak to her. The red head was more concerned with the boy sitting beside her who actually did make an attempt to include her in their conversation.

That day Hermione Granger made herself friends with Ronald Weasley, and Harry Potter. That day, Hermione Granger's life changed, for she didn't know it yet, but Harry Potter would eventually lead her towards the one person who truly loved her. No matter how twisted that love had come to fruition.

~.O.~

**First Time**

_Hogwarts Express, 1938_

" _I don't like how that man looked at us Tommy," Hermione said to her brother, looking out to the new blurred green landscape the train sped past in the bright daylight. She liked trains, they were big and powerful, and nothing could stop them except another train colliding with it's long body. Thoughts swirling around her head all the while as she made them known to her twin, making it all that much more difficult to focus on one thing._

" _I know love," he told her, setting his hand on her thigh as he held the book he was reading with the other._

_Concentrating on the heat of his hand through her new school robes and muggle trousers, she observed the features of his sharp profile. Shadows from outside casting onto his pale skin, his wavy hair perfectly styled with only a piece hanging down into his stormy grey eyes so much like her that made him look as attractive as can be in her mind, and so charismatic to others who didn't have the strength to resist his charm at even such a young age. His hand tightened on her leg fractionally as a smile tilted his lips slightly upward that told her he knew she was watching him. Standing up she took the book away from him and set it on the opposite seat of the compartment, wiggling her body until she sat herself with her legs draped over Tom's horizontally and wrapping her arms around his neck as his enveloped her waist._

" _They won't allow us to stay together, it'll be just like the orphanage," she told him, her voice breaking as Tom set his chin atop her curls and rubbed her back. "What if we don't get into the same house?"_

_He lifted her chin with his fingertips to give her a smile that instantly calmed her raging emotions. "Trust me love," he smirked, "We're too alike to not be." Tom assured her with a kiss to the forehead and tickling her ribs lightly._

_Giggling softly her smile brightened as she looked up into his shining eyes. "Promise."_

" _Promise." He told her, and so she tucked her chin under his own again, waiting to go to the school where hopefully no one would try to tear them apart from one another. All hell would break loose otherwise._

~.O.~

_**Sorting Hat** _

_Great Hall, 1991_

Hermione already knew what seeing the castle would feel like. Home, but not. It was home to all of the many years of memories she and Tom spent together, other than the orphanage, yet, it was the place she had been ripped from her twin, and the man who had done the deed was now headmaster. She felt cold warring with warmth take root in her stomach, old memories bombarding her as she passed the familiar sights of the castle corridors.

_Home had always been wherever her and her brother were together._

"Sorry love," Tom told her in her mind, knowing it was much to take in but was necessary for her to be prepared to keep Dumbledore away from their secrets despite his previous assertions she mustn't know too much in one instance. Harry gave her a questioning look as she stumbled on air when they came to a stop at the steps leading to the wooden doors of the entrance, she just shook her head and smiled as Minerva McGonagall gave the first year opening speech of the inner workings of the houses and the Sorting Hat.

For once in her life, as much as she hated it, she was glad to be in Gryffindor. The house that had once warred with her original one, and seemed to be even more so in this day and age. She was glad to be friends with the boy that contained a piece of her brother's soul in him though, if only to feel the warmth she didn't often feel anymore other than when the voice in her head spoke to her. Although, she still didn't exactly like the fact that someone not of their blood held such a precious object within them, and that her brother decided to gift him with such a thing.

She was still a bit fuzzy on the details of how the boy came to have his scar upon his forehead, but when she did eventually learn of the whole of the story, the anger she felt at her twin dissipated quickly. Most of it anyway.

She would miss the cold air of the dungeons, and have to deal with being surrounded by gold and red and being hated by her old house of her ancestors, but none of that would matter when she found a way to be reunited with her brother while under the ever watchful gaze of Albus Dumbledore.

~.O.~

**A Professor's First Impressions**

Severus Snape. He is a dark man, anyone could see that by the way he dressed, and acted, and by the subject he favored from the very start of meeting him. The people around him never thought to look beneath the glares and the snark, especially those who knew that he had been a Death Eater from those who had lived through the first war. But Hermione knew all too well than to simply judge a person's character by what others thought, or how their outward appearance seemed. Tom taught her that better than anyone. Harry didn't trust him, accusing him of anything and everything going bad in the castle, especially of trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone Dumbledore had been guarding.

Then there was something about Professor Quirrell, everyone saw him as a cowardly teacher that fainted while running from trolls, stuttering his way inconsistently through any and everything, but Hermione saw something in his eyes. Steel was hiding behind stutters, he was hiding something, something that would get him killed if anyone ever found out, and it was very possible it had something to do with the same warm feeling she tended to get around Harry. It wasn't possible, but somehow it was.

Then one day after class, Hermione had bumped into the professor as he was in a hurry to leave, and it clicked. The burning sensation almost scorched her alive, so much more than she was used to from the Tom residing within her head, and Quirrell felt it too. It was _her_ Tommy. The man with another face had gotten a look on the one he showed to the world, one Hermione had never seen before, and she had wanted to hug him and never let him go. But protecting him would be enough as it was simply her other half's soul that resided in this body that had an entirely separate consciousness, a thing very different that what resided within her mind.

"Give up on the Stone. Harry's getting closer."

The next day he was gone, with no explanation as he disappeared off the face of the earth with only a note to Hermione…

_I will come back for you._

Other than the broken pieces of his soul, he still lived on, and he was still connected to her, and her him. But she had not been able to touch him in the way she so desperately wanted, and perhaps that hurt more than anything in the moment she stood in.

~.O.~

**Chamber of Secrets**

The next year, the hope of being that much closer to her loving brother was heightened even more when Lucius Malfoy gave Hermione Tom's diary with a sneer. The diary she had bought him so long ago to which she had the twin to, lost to the years that separated them.

"Here, Mudblood, the pages are charmed. Only the person with the other book will see the messages, use it sparingly," he held the brown object out to her, the golden letters of Tom's name shining in the dim light of Flourish and Blotts.

_As if she did not already know of it's properties._

Hermione ran her fingers over them, feeling the pulsing of the soul inside and Tom hissing within her head, "Is he safe?"

He had a certain look in his eye as he attempted to walk away, "I don't know what you mean, girl."

She grabbed his arm, a fine burning sensation spreading through it as if the small girl's fingers were fire and he tissue paper, a rattled look spreading across his face at her next words, " _Is. He. Safe_?" The book pulsed even more insistently as her magic sparked at her fingers.

"Yes," he had aimed to steer clear from Hermione that day.

..

The first time she sat in her bed and wrote in the yellowed pages, she was transported into a ghosty Chamber of Secrets, the link between Tom's soul keeping the latest body he was inhabiting alive recognizing it's other half and bringing her to him in his dreams.

_Magic truly was an extraordinary thing._

Looking around her, Hermione saw a black and white chamber with a long walkway led by snarling snakes to a large statue of Salazar Slytherin's face. Hearing shuffling behind her, she pirouetted on her heel and gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth, along with the sob that threatened to escape. The once again thirteen year old Hermione came face to face with her fifteen year old twin, one of the first of the horcruxes he had made. One of the first pieces of his soul he had split into two.

"Hermione," Tom said, his face glazed over as if in a trance while staring at his twin.

"Tommy," Hermione whispered, her hand reaching out to touch his face, but knowing it would go right through, the sob broke through without her control as it indeed did.

"My 'Mione," Tom said, his voice cracking as he stepped closer to her and hovered his hand over her cheek. "My 'Mione," his voice was soft, as if not believing she was here in front of him. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too."

His face broke further as it contorted to anger and sadness warring with one another. "50 years." He told her, his hands curling into fists before turning his body away from her, Hermione only seeing his tense back.

"50 years Tommy," a tear fell down her face as she remembered the day she was taken from him. "It's been 50 years."

"Was it him?" he asked, finally able to have all the questions he had been ignorant of for so long answered. "Dumbledore?"

"Yes."

Suddenly he spun around and stared at her smiling a bit with one corner of his mouth and asked, "Do you remember when I made this first Horcrux, love?"

Smiling softly as she watched him pace in front of Salazar's head, she replied, "The parts that I was awake for."

Instantly, in-between them both appeared ghostly copies of themselves at fifteen years old talking to the large snakelike dragon with razor sharp teeth sticking out of her mouth, porcupine needles like a mane about her neck. Almost as soon as came it was gone, a shrill girlish scream from the sink's opening to the chamber calling for her attention as a golden glow shone around Tom who then fell to his hands and knees, ghostly Hermione turning him on his back, a look of panic on her face.

"I hated making that one," the black and white Tom said to her, his eyes still stuck to the scene in front of them as the golden glow transferred to Hermione and she fell to the ground beside Tom. "I couldn't feel you until you were awake again."

"The same thing happened to me, Tommy," Hermione said, walking around to stand by his side to watch the events unfold, "I thought you were dying."

Hermione woke with a gasp to Tom hovering over her and he grabbed her round the waist as she fought to gain breath until she was half in his lap.

"It worked," apparition Hermione said in an echoey sort of voice. "It worked Tommy!" she gasped a laugh as Tom landed a hard kiss to her lips as the scene vanished in a white unsubstantial steam and thirteen year old Hermione looked to Tom who was already looking down at her with a wistful expression in his eyes and on lips.

"I wish I could touch you again," he repeated his earlier gesture of hovering his hand by her cheek.

_50 years he had not been able to touch her, she would be able to wait a few more._

Hermione smiled sadly before quickly dropping it as a thought occurred to her, "We won't be able to see each other again like this." It wasn't a question.

His hand dropped, "No. The body I possess is too weak, I will soon have to find another."

Her hand copied his dropped movements, "Our Basilisk is asleep. She will be ready for our call."

He started to fade just in front of her eyes, and smiled as his voice echoed out to her, " _I love you, my girl."_

Hermione fell back on her golden sheets and sobbed into her pillow once she returned to her dorm, knowing that she wouldn't see her brother for many more months, or possibly years. She knew though that no one, no one would get in her way to bringing him back. It was only a matter of who would give him the push he needed, and it seemed that the next years after this, their knights would do all the pushing for their master and their long lost Mistress.

" _We will be alright, my love,"_ Tom told her, " _As long as we have each other, we can get through anything,"_ watching through her eyes as a dark mark came to life of Hermione's left forearm, a lavender nestled in it's mouth to mimic that of her necklace Tom still wore about his neck since finding it upon a cold stone floor all those years ago.

~.O.~

**Bad Memories**

_Hogwarts Express_

She never thought that dementors were scary creatures, although she had only been by them a handful of times when Tom had decided they had needed them as allies. Sirius Black escaping Azkaban had brought them here, and she could feel the air turn to ice. Tall, willowy, living shadows with the ability to suck all the happy memories from you, they had the power of allowing you to relive the worst one you've had in all the years you have lived. But for some reason Hermione was the first to be seen in the compartment, and she was the one to relive a memory of anger instead of fear, a feeling along with thoughts she hoped she would never feel or ever think again.

_Wool's Orphanage_

Summer, 1942

_Hermione walked down the dark dusty hall of the orphanage while dragging her hand along the wall, alone as Tom was meeting with their knights in a rare summer meeting when she heard giggling coming from a cracked door she had just passed. A girl saying her brother's name made her freeze in place just outside._

" _He was so good," a girl named Sara giggled from inside, her voice always having grated Hermione's nerves, she was tempted to leave until she heard the next words out of the girl's mouth. "He felt so good, Dawn. It was like he had done it forever."_

_The other girl, Dawn, giggled to her friend, "It was about time you got laid. I'm just surprised you got Tom! He's never away from his sister."_

_Sara made a sound of disgust, "She's such a whore, Dawn. She never leaves his side, it wasn't even that hard to get him to screw me once…"_

_Hermione stopped listening as her whole body turned numb at the realization that Tom, her Tommy, had sex with a girl, and didn't tell her. There have been many times that they had sex with someone else, but they had always told each other before they had done it and who they did it with if they decided to. He didn't tell her. That's what hurt the most, and at that thought, anger flooded her body. He was the only person that could hurt her in any way possible, her only weakness, and she hated it. She hated that anyone had an advantage over her, but she would never trade him for the world, no matter how vulnerable he made her._

_Already having a plan in mind, Hermione opened the door just a bit more and cast the imperius curse towards Sara, her and Tom having cloaked their wand's tracker long ago, and whispering in her head as she sat bolt upright from her relaxed position on the bed._

" _Tell Dawn you are going to look for some food," Sara robotically tells Dawn, "walk out the bedroom door, go down the stairs into the woods, and make sure no one sees you."_

_Sara does as Hermione tells her, her movements automatic as she stops short in the hallway to avoid a boy going to his room, continuing on outside with Hermione following her the whole way with her wand tip lighted slightly. As they tread half a mile into the forest, Hermione blended in completely in her black dress, only the small amount of skin at her face, hands, and tops of her feet glowing in the darkness._

" _Stop," she said out loud, binding Sara's hands and ankles with invisible ropes before pushing the blonde girl roughly to the ground as she took the imperius off her mind. She couldn't help but relish in the fearful look the girl cast around her as she struggled against her binds._

" _What's going on? What am I doing here?" she cried._

_Hermione ignored her tears and straddled her waist, wrestling her arms to the ground above her head and laughing as she cried out for help._

" _Scream all you want, girl," Hermione licked the side of her neck where she had cut herself, feeling her shiver in disgust, their little grapple for power already making her grow tired as her energy weakened. "No one will hear you."_

" _Please, why are you doing this?" Hermione sighed, already growing bored as she summoned a blade and aimed it at the girl's jugular._

" _Did you enjoy fucking my brother?" she asked, watching the girls eyes widen in fear just as she felt an all encompassing warmth spread throughout her body as a familiar voice spoke from just above of the two girls._

" _Are you jealous, love?" Tom asks his sister as he leaned against a large tree, his hands casually in his suit pockets and a smirk on his lips._

_Seeing him brought all the anger back that she had previously felt, slapping the dagger on the ground and earning a cut on her palm for her troubles before she stalked up to her twin and slapped him across the cheek, smearing a trail of blood across._

" _You son of a bitch," she said, her voice shaking with fury. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me?" she asked, hurt now entering her voice as his stormy grey eyes darkened to match their hair. Unexpectedly she was thrown to the ground next to Sara as the girl cried out and tried to wiggle away from them, Tom's hand wrapping around Hermione's throat, caressing it more than contributing to anything painful._

" _Why did you want to date Jason?" his voice was as calm as could be, but Hermione could tell fury similar to her own lay beneath it._

_She narrowed her eyes at him as his hands wandered down to graze her breasts, down to her hip, then to wrap around her thigh which he then painfully squeezed and could already feel bruising. Sara's whimpers filled the forest around them, echoing off the trees as they increased when Tom wrapped Hermione's leg up around his hip where it was not exposed to the cold air once her dress succumbed to gravity._

" _To get him to quit following me around, Tom," she didn't even feel angry with him anymore as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, bringing his forehead down to hers to feel his breath against her lips she closed her eyes. "He means nothing to me. People were talking, we needed to keep up appearances, they could separate us. They may be muggles, but they know where to hit us where it hurts. We've made that perfectly obvious in the past years."_

" _They are nothing 'Mione. I promised you no one would take you away from me," his eyes bore into her's as his own anger dissipated. "We promised each other."_

 _She said nothing, only tilting her head to kiss him gently, breaking away when they heard Sara start up again. They both turn their heads to see the girl staring at them with revulsion._ " _You're both sick!" she screamed at them, tears pouring out of her blue eyes and making her cheeks flush._

" _Yes we are," Tom said, pulling Hermione to stand back up above the bound girl. Hermione grabbing the jewel encrusted dagger from the ground while she knelt by the sniveling girl._

" _If love is sick, then we are diseased beyond help," she told her, just as she sliced the girl's jugular and watched her gasp while her life blood seeped out onto the ground beneath her._

_Tom pulls her up and grips her hips as she holds her mouth in front of his, allowing a golden glow, a piece of her soul, flow from her into Tom, bringing them both to their knees still clinging to each other. Unlike when Tom made his first Horcrux, Hermione's was filled with coldness, and despair, their bond forcibly severed once more, soon to return with an even more all consuming warmth. But not without sending them into the deepest depression before granting them the gift of feeling everything the other felt as if they themselves were experiencing it._

Hermione gasps Tom's name as she wakes, finding herself laying on the cushioned bench of the compartment with Harry, Ron, and Professor Lupin hovering over her. Shivering with wet cheeks, she just knew they were going to be flushed and blotchy if she looked in a mirror..

Lupin gave her a piece of chocolate and smiled at her, "It's medicinal. Eat." Harry asked how she was doing and she started sobbing with a mouthful of the bittersweet treat in her exhaustion.

"Are you okay 'Mione?" Ron asked, worry lining his face as well as Harry's, Lupin looking slightly uncomfortable sat next to her.

Hearing the name, she sobbed harder and grabbed the closest person to her, which happened to be Harry. Having another piece of Tom's soul beside her made her feel calm, no matter that it wasn't truly him, yet that realization made her fall even more into her sadness.

"Who's Tom Hermione?" Harry asked over her shoulder, his chin resting on her shoulder with his nose buried in her curls.

She pulled back and smiled at him, wiping her tears away, "No one Harry, just someone I used to know." She didn't see Lupin flinch at the name.

~.O.~

**Exceptional**

Hermione's year had continued on, and it seemed as if she were cursed to find everything horrible in the castle and have it turn on her to rip her from the bliss of knowing each day pulled her closer to her twin. Her worst fear stood right in front of her in the form of a boggart: Tom's walking corpse telling her she did it to him, she let him die by leaving him. As she cast the spell, she felt herself shivering as she vaguely heard Professor Lupin say she could leave early, looking unsettled himself. Harry steered her towards the Gryffindor common room. She was tired, and she wanted her brother, but she was at a dead end with finding someone she could trust to help him and be her number one person, Lucius Malfoy may be somewhat trusted by her brother, but she didn't know him. And that made her wary. Hermione wasn't going to lose her hope though, for later that year, she found exactly who she would trust her and her brother's lives with. The one man she had previously thought might come in handy someday, Tom had written when she had told him of her plans...

_Excellent idea, sister_

Severus Snape. A man who lost the woman he loved to his childhood bully, a man who was scarred by his family way before that, and who had run to the Death Eaters in search for a family. The place he truly belonged. The fact that he very well be a spy now was simply irrelevant in the long run, Tom might distrust him for now but Hermione was not the master who had killed said woman who had been the reason for his defection. Hermione knew he was the one the instant she saw his eyes filled with hate at Sirius Black, and fear of Lupin once he set foot in the shrieking shack on a full moon. Hermione could just see the teenage boy hiding behind the snarling lined face that stood holding Black at wand point.

"I trusted you!" Harry yelled to Lupin, "I trusted you, and all this time, you've been his friend!"

Lupin's face was sympathetic, "Harry-" he began, not getting a chance to explain as Severus barged into the room and everyone stared, unmoving at the two men staring each other down.

Severus came up to Sirius with his wand pointed at his neck, his face filled with unconcealed loathing, "I could do it you know. But why deny the dementors? They're so longing to see you. They say a Dementor's Kiss is the worst thing to have happen to you. Your soul taken away, not being able to feel anything, stuck inside your mind."

"Severus, please." Lupin tried persuading him just as Hermione saw Harry's wand move up, but was too late to stop him from rendering Severus unconscious with a well executed _Expelliarmus_ to the chest _._

In the chaos, Peter Pettigrew in the form of Scabbers jumped out of Ron's hands before scampering off through the creaky floorboards out to the base of the Whomping Willow, bringing along everyone except Hermione and the groaning Severus all proceeding after him. Hermione approached Severus on the broken bed raining dust everywhere, wary of how he would react to help.

Crouching down next to him once she revived him to wakefulness he noticed her and scowled blackley, and seeing he was about to tear her a new one she interrupted, "Are you alright?"

The lines between his brows became more prominent in his irritation, "Yes Miss. Granger, I am fine, but when we get back to the castle-" he tried to get up as Hermione moved away to give him space, wondering how she was going to go about bringing up this conversation. But he grabbed his leg suddenly as he tried to stand, grinding his teeth together.

"Let me help," Hermione told him, bending next to him again and ignoring his protests that he could do it himself, but she knew just as well as him that healing yourself never worked as well as someone else doing it for you.

Putting a hand where he had grasped, she called upon her magic, concentrating it to flow neatly through her hand and into his leg. Severus was astounded, he didn't know what to think when the pain had receded. This girl, this girl who he had grown to dislike immensely for being friends with Potter and being an insufferable chit, was healing him with magic she shouldn't possess at such a young age, as well as doing it willingly. Growing groggy, he felt faint and almost fell back on a board if Hermione hadn't caught him and lowered him softly down and sat next to him.

She apologized, "Healing another person other than my brother usually has some side effects."

"You don't have a brother," he slurred, far less intimidating now that he wasn't scowling at everything that walked within ten feet of his person, the air absent of his frequent tongue lashings.

Smiling slightly, Hermione brushed a piece of hair out of his closed eyes, sadness filling her when he flinched away slightly but allowed her to brush her hand down his cheek regardless, "Of course I do. It's a secret."

He slowly rolled his head to look at her, his eyes hooded, "What is your brother's name?"

Hermione watched his face for any sign of emotion, "His name is Tom. Tom Riddle."

Severus simply stared at her, until a flicker of fear entered his eyes, "You look like him, before he came back, but that's not possible. She disappeared 50 years... ago…" his eyes were confusedly rolling about the room in his dizziness, but thoughts swirled all throughout his wobbly mind. It had been almost of an urban legend among those older Death Eaters who had been loyal to the Dark Lord since his school years, of the missing sister of their Master who had been his balm, his other half who had never much been parted from his side. The girl who had suddenly disappeared the winter of their sixth year of schooling within Hogwarts, and the catalyst of their master just about losing his mind with pain and anger. The start of his obsession with immortality as well. Dumbledore's wariness of her, the girl's familiar name, and her appearance so alike her older brother suddenly made all that much more sense.

Hermione grabbed his left arm and rolled up the sleeve to expose the faded Dark Mark, "Are you truly loyal to him Severus, or are you loyal to the man who allowed Lily to be murdered?" He tensed up at his former love's name, and if Hermione hadn't been holding onto him, she wouldn't have noticed. She smiled before he could say anything. "He was never meant to be like this, we were never after power. We just wanted to be together, forever. It seemed though that people were constantly trying to tear us apart, including the man who claims to be on the side of the light but had more darkness in him at the time than me and Tom." Sadness overcame her as she traced the mark's outline, "We may have killed people, but it was never for fun. It was necessary, never let a body go to waste. He never would have turned out this way if I had been with him, I was never one to believe in prophecies in the first place. Like the one that led him to walking the earth as if he was a common parasite," she paused for a moment as tears gathered in her eyes, looking to Severus who stared at her as if making up something in his head. "We were never meant to be apart for this long, we always lost our minds a little bit if we were even apart for a day."

"You aren't like him at all, are you?" Severus asked Hermione, sitting up as the effects of being healed weared off.

Her mouth lifted a bit, "Not how he is now, no." she hesitated, "Does he hurt you?"

"Yes." Severus wondered why she cared, she may not act like the Dark Lord's sister, but she was in all ways but attitude at the moment.

Her face fell again, "If you had a choice, Severus, would you choose to be free of your masters? Of my brother, of Dumbledore, of all magical obligations? Would you be loyal to the person who would free you to make your own allegiances to who you want to, not out of any compulsion but your own will?"

Severus' mind stopped, not even wanting to contemplate the possibilities of a masterless life. It was too good to be true. He looked to her with a hidden vulnerability much like that hint of his old teenage self he had shown just minutes ago, searching her innocent seeming face that looked so much like her brother, yet so different. He made up his mind. "Yes. I would."

Hermione's face lit up as if he told her he would give her the stars before lifting his arm to her lips, and so she kissed the mark that was never meant to bind someone to another person, but was meant originally as a sign of devotion between only her and her brother. Severus' body radiated warmth from her mouth touching his skin, never having felt such a thing as her energy warming him to his dragon hide encased toes before. Hermione pulled back, watching as the Dark Mark turned pitch black once more, shifting slightly with the addition of a blooming flower within the mouth. Severus could feel deep in his gut that he made the right decision.

"You are part of our family now," Hermione said, helping him stand finally, "You won't have to worry about Tom anymore. I'll deal with him."

"He is still truly alive."

"Yes. He is."

A howl suddenly broke through the creaks and groans of the shack, and they know exactly who and what it is.

"Lupin," Severus growls, the fear reentering his eyes no matter how hard he tried to contain it.

"Damn it," Hermione said, "Harry and Ron are out there."

As they emerged from the base of the ground of the Willow, they saw Lupin make the final changes of his transformation into lycanthropy and Sirius transforming into his animagus form as well to lunge at Remus. Severus and Hermione both run in front of a scared Harry and shaking Ron who was once again holding Peter Pettigrew in his rat form, all the while Hermione could feel Severus shaking as his wand lifted and sent a nonverbal sleeping charm at Remus, causing Sirius to whimper slightly and turn to Severus with his mouth foaming, thinking he had caused harm to his best friend. He lunged, and Hermione stepped in the way at the shocked gasps of the two boys behind her, only to get bitten on the thigh and knocked back into Severus who held her up as everything went dark.

..

_Hospital Wing_

Hermione was taken to the Hospital Wing as Sirius put Remus back into the Shrieking Shack, Harry and Ron then taking him, as well as Pettigrew, to Dumbledore under the Invisibility Cloak. Madame Pomfrey was then bustling around Hermione's bed who had a pillow under her newly bandaged thigh.

Severus was sitting beside her bed, looking at her with an indistinguishable expression, "Why would you do that? Why would you risk yourself for me?" his deep drawling baritone uncharacteristically quiet and low so as to not be overheard by the castle's ears.

She smiled at him as she could hear Madame Pomfrey muttering to herself in her office, drawing his left arm into her lap to caress his newly darkened arm through his frock coat.

"This mark, Severus, is a symbol that will forever connect us together. It is a sign of your love and loyalty to me, as well as protection on my part. When I offered this chance to you, I was offering a wardship to you. My reincarnated body may be young, but I still have my mind." She said to his face that showed so much vulnerability that he never had shown to anyone, such as it was those he would have shown most likely would have used it against him in some way in the future. She felt like weeping as he asked himself as well as her why she chose him, why he was so special to this one girl who may have well saved his life from the animagus who had spent years loathing him.

As if she read his thoughts, she raised a hand to his cheek, "Your life is very special, and if anyone has ever seen the real you and not the snarling mask you put up everyday, they would see it too. That is why I chose you, Severus. You were a man, sentenced to death at a very early age by joining my brother, and then Dumbledore. I would never ask you to do anything I would not do myself, or do anything to you that I myself would not take."

He brought himself together, looking at this small girl that held so much power in more than her wand, he kissed her knuckles. "Thank you."

She smiled at him, and she asked him something she knew very well he could refuse but wouldn't.

"Will you help me bring my brother back, Severus? _My_ brother, not Lord Voldemort, but the man he used to be before he was taken from me?"

He knelt on bended knee, bowing over her hand, "Yes, my lady. I swear to you that I, Severus Snape, will do anything in my power to bring back your brother."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be on the lookout for the rewrite of this story, Blood and Loyalty! A preview will be posted as a third chapter of this story once everything is ironed out and written. Hope you see y'all there!

**Mystified**

Early in the day the Quidditch World Cup was scheduled to take place, Hermione felt something tangible in the air, and was not a bit surprised when her Dark Mark grew warm. She hadn't spoken to Tom in a few days, but she had known he had been planning something. There was chaos everywhere, and Hermione loved it. Tents caught fire, people screaming, smoke and fear in the air. It had been a long time since she had felt like this. Death Eaters in long cowled robes and bone masks caused panic to seep into the air, everyone she was with had disappeared while she was in the same spot she was in when she first caught wind of the noises, just enjoying the smell of blood in the air. But then, suddenly, it was quiet. Everyone had either disapparated or used a portkey to leave, immediately surrounded with wands pointed at her.

"Well aren't you a pretty little girl?" a hairy werewolf-man by the name of Greyback told her, smiling at her with a pointed tooth grin.

Hermione was not impressed with her brother's new followers, she smirked at him, "I'm older than I look."

"We'll see about that," Greyback growled as he started towards her, some of the other Death Eaters chuckling raspily.

"She is off limits," came from a cowled figure beside Greyback, "The Dark Lord forbids her from being harmed."

Greyback turned to the man, growling out as the hair on his arms stood up like an animal in danger, "You sweet on the Mudblood, Malfoy? The Dark Lord didn't give us any rules."

Hermione pointed her wand at him as the others murmured their agreements, more chuckles raising around her as she bared her left arm, and immediately stopped as they saw what lay etched into it, whispering as they knew it obviously wasn't a traditional Dark Mark. She brought it up to her lips and kissed it, summoning Severus to her as she knew he was on another part of the grounds where the fires blazed brighter. He came to her in a mass of black shimmery smoke.

"Severus," she greeted him as he lowered his mask, and went on one knee and kissed her hand. "Did you do well?" she asked, as if they were not in the middle of dangerous and confused Death Eaters.

"Yes my lady," he replied, "Do you wish for me to call them off?"

She smiled, "Yes, my dear. Please. Send my brother my regards." She kissed his cheek as the other's masks disappeared from their faces.

At those words the Death Eaters disapparated in clouds of black, fear of their Lord outweighing their curiosity as Hermione raised her wand in the air and conjured up the green light that made up the Dark Mark, and she was captivated. This is how Harry, Ron, Mr. Weasley, and the Aurors found her, mystified, staring up into the sky with a craving pit deep within her stomach.

~.O.~

**The Only One For Her**

Ron was an idiot, Hermione had already known that, but he had just demonstrated it once again in Severus' class. He was once again whinging about not having a date for the ball, when he asked something incredibly insensitive and stupid.

"Hermione you're a girl, right?" he said, immediately getting another hit on the head from Severus for talking he would think, but the Professor's reason was of something very different. "You want to go with one of us?" Harry just shook his head and buried his head in his notebook, shoulders shaking.

"Very astute, Ronald," Hermione huffed, finishing her sentence and standing, "And no Ron, I was already asked." She gave her papers to Severus who looked surly as ever.

Hermione grinned at him, glad her back was to the class, "Are you jealous, Sev?" She asked, although she already knew the answer from the slight emotions flitting through their bond of the Dark Mark.

He ignored her teasing as he pretended to look through the work on his desk, "Who are you going with?"

"Harry asked me. Save me a dance?"

He looked up to her still smiling face, his grimace melting, "Of course, my Lady."

Passing the boys, Ron's mouth was gaping unattractively. Guess Harry told him.

..

"Do you remember our Yule Ball Tom?" While some of her former memories remained fuzzy until she concentrated specifically with Tom's help to fill in the pieces, the Ball was one such one that was of the easier ones to remember. For one reason for another.

"Yes I do, my love," he chuckled, "They all talked about us that night too, more than usual."

She laughed out loud, glad that she had spelled the curtains around her bed, "I also remember how you reacted to Abraxas when he tried to ask me to it."

..

_Hogwarts_

_Outside the Great Hall, 1943_

_Hermione's back dug into the stone of the deserted hallway where Tom had his hand around her throat, his thumb slowly stroking the slightly red skin._

" _If he even asks you to dance, I will maim that handsome face of his in his sleep," he told her, his eyes darkening all the while._

 _She smirked up at him as his hand tightened momentarily, tilting her head to the side in order to_ _kiss her neck._

" _I would expect nothing less, brother," she gasped out as his hand bruised her hip and his lips moved to trail over her own. "You know you're the only one for me, Tommy. I could never love anyone more than I love you. Maybe just as much as you, though. But he would have to be very special indeed to draw my attention away from you."_

_He pushed her harder against the stone and laughed, gently kissing her as his grip loosened, "As long as he doesn't get in my way, I won't have a problem."_

_In retaliation of the rising bruises scattered upon her body, her sharp teeth latched onto Tom's own pale neck until it bled. The very obvious mark bruised very dark in shades of green, blue, and purple for the next few days as Tom proudly strutted around the castle for all to see, not once thinking of glamoring it to save himself the inquiring glances. Looks that more than not turned to the smiling sister at his side, but dared not make any comment._

..

_Great Hall, 1995_

"You look lovely, my lady," Severus told her as he danced about the Great Hall with her to one of the slower songs of the night, his face was blank but she saw a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

She grinned at him as he twirled her in her dark green dress that fell around her in layers of soft silk, "Thank you, Severus. You can call me Hermione you know?" he gave her a look, she laughed, "In private." She looked down to her dress, "Harry didn't like the color very much, but you Slytherins seem to be drawn to me in this particular shade." He huffed out a laugh at her joke, knowing very well her heritage as she curtsied to him before bowing back to her when the song ended. Watching as she walked back to Harry, and noting a certain blond eyed pure-blood whose' eyes had followed her for the duration of her dance with her knight.

"Why were you dancing with Snape?" Ron asked, sounding disgusted as Harry handed her a cup of cold pumpkin juice.

"Professor Snape, Ron," she told him, taking a sip of her drink, "and students were encouraged to dance with the professors. You heard Professor McGonagall."

He shuddered, his face contorting, "No thanks, once was bloody well enough for me."

She laughed at him as Tom made his presence known once more, " _Do I have competition, my dear Sister?"_

"I stand by my words, Tommy." Her eyes were once again on Severus in his dashing Slytherin green dress robes she had convinced him to wear. "You will always be the first man in my eyes."

"I will hold you to that."

~.O.~

**Back to Life**

_Triwizard Tournament_

Hermione had gotten a message for the first time in a while from her living brother, and not the one residing within her mind.

_Tonight_

She felt the stir in the air, all too familiar and like the one during the Quidditch World Cup. Tom's voice raspy with excitement echoed in her head, giving way to an older version of itself, " _Done._ "

"Done," Hermione repeated out loud as the long gone warmth of her brother settled into place beside her heart one more, looking to Severus who had already been observing her face from across the stands. Giddiness growing in her belly as the crowd's cheers around her grew to a roar, Harry appeared holding Cedric Diggory's body in a flash of blue light from the Triwizard portkey. The limb boy was clearly dead, that much was clear as soon as she saw Harry try and cling to the body as Dumbledore stood next to him. It took the crowd a few moments, and as if a switch was flicked, a horrific silence descended as Mr. Diggory began wailing. Hermione had felt her arm grow warm, and a presence not made up of a horcrux made itself known to her, for the first time in 50 years.

" _Together,_ " it said, " _Together again. Tonight._ "

" _Tonight,_ " Hermione agreed, toning out the screams of the people around her at Harry's words of a supposed long dead man returning to life.

..

_Godric's Hollow_

Lord Voldemort was resurrected in a flash of swirling smoke, his weak and withered human body he had been possessing elongating, strengthening, connecting itself once again to it's other half as he gained strength with each passing minute. Connecting his soul once more to Hermione.

The next series of events would forever change how the world worked. It will forever be changed due to the actions of one man, one man who had thought he was doing good but had inadvertently made the most powerful wizard in a century even more dangerous. All due to love, the world will burn soon enough by the actions of two people who'd have killed themselves than be parted.

..

_Hermione's mind lingered half way in the middle of darkness and light, as her soul had for many years before. Even in sleep she felt different. She felt whole. Her mind couldn't rest for all the world as gears turned, plans were in the making of the future. It was glorious chaos after Harry revealed Lord Voldemort was back, the air filled with denial and fear, and a father's sadness for his murdered son that never would have happened if the blue eyed Headmaster hadn't of separated her from her brother. The man back from the brink of death she thought while even in sleep her mouth tilted up at the thought of him, making her look even more innocent than she truly was._

_Suddenly, a sun melded itself above her, grass under her bare feet as a white dress with flowing sleeves folded itself around her, translucent in the light. Her brother stood in front of her, clad in his new body that just wouldn't do._

" _Tommy!" Hermione gasped, and before she knew it she was engulfed in the phantom like warmth that would have been Tom._

" _Hermione," Tom said in her ear, arms wrapping around her small body half the size of his own, and buried his face in her shadowy riot of curls. They could finally touch each other, after 50 years so unlike their meeting just a few years ago within his diary._

_Pulling back, Hermione stared at her brother's new body inspired by Nagini's venom in the potion that had resurrected him. She caressed his face gently, feeling the essence of heat upon his cheek, "What have you done to yourself, my love?"_

_All Tom did was put his hand up to her face and attempted to trace every sharp angle and commit it to memory once again. Heat was flaring up from their bellies to snake out to all parts of themselves._

" _Are you ready Tommy?" Hermione asked him, smiling a smile she had never shown to any of her friends in her new life._

_In answer, he leaned down to softly press his lips to hers as pleasure filled both of their beings. Hermione moaned as Tom tangled a hand in her hair, and a shining golden light surrounded their bodies even brighter than the sun. Tom felt like he was on fire, and by extension, Hermione as she moaned out loud in the waking world as well. Light turned to darkness, and then everything was still. The flowers, the birds, the trees surrounding them. Everything became still except the two heart beats in sync with one another as snake like Lord Voldemort, turned into charming and handsome Tom Riddle once more._

..

Hermione woke gasping while feeling as if she could be suffocated by the red velvet sheets of her bed, sitting up in the bed as she still felt her twin's heat surrounding her. She had her Tom back, and she was going to do everything to stay with him this time. Twisting a now black wavy curl around her finger as if her muggle mother had never given her caramel curls, she tested her connection with her brother. Closing her eyes, she imagined what her magic looked like and it came to her in glimmering gold waves, spinning and dancing in darkness now with a silver that seemed to revolve around her magic that had not been there before she was reunited with her brother. She smiled as she heard the whispers of her brother's thoughts that would forever remain in her head, three words were louder than the others, and they only made her even more happier for she hadn't heard them from present day Tom in years.

"Soon." His voice echoed fleetingly through her mind.

"Very soon," she repeated to him, watching the waves of magic dance even more enthusiastically with their words and mounting emotions, relishing in the enjoyment she knew he felt with having his old body as well as his sister back once more.

~.O.~

**Together Again**

Not very long after Hermione and Tom were reunited in their dreams, they were reunited in reality.

Hermione didn't think that she and her brother would see each other for the first time like this without the aid of dreams or parchment charms, especially not through the eyes and body of Harry Potter. Hermione already knew that her brother had lost a bit of his sanity along the years she was away from him, but she didn't think that he would do something as blatant as this. Especially after they had been bonded together again. The Department of Mysteries was a tricky thing, prophecies were tricky things. They were what got her Tom on the verge of death once, and they were going to threaten his life again as well as expose them both.

"Come back to me love. Do it for us. We will always find our way back to each other, no matter what. We've been through too much already to have them win. We will be together again," Hermione knelt on the ground with her hands on Harry's chest, Voldemort inhabiting his body fighting for control of will. She touches his cheek as those smoky eyes in that pale gaunt face looked at her through the Boy-Who-Lived. "I will always be here, waiting. We promised always."

Suddenly as if a shock went through her body, as well as Harry's, heat flooded them both and Tom's eyes bored into her's as he rasps through a combination of his and the boy's voices, "Always." Dark smoke lifted out of Harry's body, and all Hermione was left to see before she fainted was green floo's springing to life and screaming steadily getting closer.

This was going to be a hell of a thing to explain later if the boy chose to hear her speaking the words to the enemy inhabiting his body and not himself.

..

Malfoy Manor was actually very pretty, if not a little… large and overdone, but Narcissa's gardens were absolutely lovely. Hermione absolutely loved all the pretty colors and types of flowers with so many different hidden meanings, to those who knew where to look. Violet and pink asters, different colored gladiolus, and iris lined the light walkway and no doubt had a little help from magic to help grow in the crisp Wiltshire air. Entering the spaciously dark ballroom on the arm of her loyal comrade, Hermione brought several unfriendly reactions and wands pointed to her from the people seated along the long mahogany table as well as a growl from more than one. And an admiring one from the commander.

Those who had been at the World Cup and having seen one of their lieutenants taking orders from her hesitated slightly, and were by far the quietest of the den of voices.

" _Silence!"_ Tom said quietly, his deep voice not having to yell to garner attention from his followers. Many sat back, only a few still mumbling their disagreements and inquiries at a _mudblood_ being at a Death Eater meeting and was met at the end of a stony glare instead of the usual green flash.

"Thank you, Sev," Hermione told Severus as they both stood only a few feet from the end of the seated people.

"Are you sure?" he asked, placing a kiss to her knuckles.

Hermione chuckled putting her hand on his face, stroking her thumb on his cheekbone, and urging him on the take his new place a few seats up from his original to her brother's right, "Go on."

Severus sneered at the eyes that followed him as Hermione looked around the dark room, slowly making her way on the right side and dragging her small hand along the large black clad shoulders as the respective owners flinched, and suddenly the room became quiet as if a spell were cast. Meeting Tom's sharp gaze, Hermione's lips turned up at the corners and it softened. Stopping behind a young man with slightly long platinum blond hair with her hand on his tense shoulder, hissing interrupted the silence followed by her feminine chuckle that also turned into a hiss. In a swirl of black, her body transformed into a long slim jade boa constrictor that wound herself around a stone stoll Draco Malfoy's neck and shoulders, nestled against his cheek until he relaxed. With a nod from his Lord, the boy ran a pale hand along her back as she went to wind herself with Nagini slithering up to Tom. Passing the various Death Eaters, Hermione hissed at a few she didn't particularly like, tying herself around her brother's torso with her daughter until she was comfortable enough to turn back into her human self. Kissing underneath his jaw, Hermione felt a kiss placed onto her own black waves as his arms went around her trim waist, her own hands around his neck and bottom between his thighs in a very familiar position before looking down the table to the bewildered Death Eaters.

As Tom began the meeting, Hermione stroked Nagini on her head as she hissed her affections to her mother with her head resting upon her breasts, both of them looking on to study the dark knights her brother had amassed. They were loyal, but only by fear, she would have to change that. Her eyes are drawn to Severus directly in front of where she sat and she smiled as she notices he is already looking at her. Next is Draco, he will be next to come around, his mother will follow, and Lucius may be possible once he sees his wife and son. Many of the people at this table may be possible once they see the differences between herself and Tom. She had always been the staunch believer that fear may inspire loyalty without question, but love inspires loyalty in the most life threatening circumstances, and unlike fear, they will stick with you throughout it all without the thought of betraying you.

Just like Severus, he had not loved his Master above all else all those years ago, and so he turned spy. But that would not happen this time around as he was now soley loyal to her alone by the affection he bore her, and she him.

"This is my sister," Hermione heard Tom say through her thoughts, "you will treat her as if she is me, when all actuality she is and you will cater to her every need and protection whether she asks for it or not. She will be your Lady as I am your Lord, but my needs will be met second to hers. She is above me in every way possible where we both are concerned."

"Tom," she admonishes him lightly, speaking for the first time while playing with the buttons on his dark green robes that boarded just on black. "Severus is capable enough to protect himself and me, and you know as much as I that I can protect myself."

He tilted her chin up with his large hand covering half of her neck and part of her cheek, his eyes flicking to Severus for a moment,, "As you did so well against Dumbledore," Their eyes both darkened as she hissed angrily at her brother who simply tightened his hand on her neck when her hand sneaked up into his hair to pull on it painfully. "Accept it, love. Until they get to know you, they will fear me, and listen to me until they learn to love you and treat you like their queen. As they should."

Hermione was not at all surprised to hear that he knew what she was thinking, their connections allowing the other to hear at all times through thoughts. Putting her hand on his pale cheek, she smiled softly as her anger lessened before leaning up to kiss the corner of his healthily pink lips, "I know my love."

..

The Death Eaters were astonished, and that didn't happen very often. They saw their feared leader smile at the girl, let the girl touch him without killing her. Kiss him and wrap her body around him sensually, and let her touch his feared overgrown familiar who allowed her to touch her scaly body without biting her with venomous fangs. The Dark Lord had never allowed anyone to get close enough to even have a chance at brushing his voluminous robes, and if they ever were they were met with the end of his dark wand and with the flash of a green light in the blink of an eye. It had been common knowledge amongst their elders that he had never sought human contact with anyone once his beloved sister had gone missing all those decades ago, and they had heeded their advice with an abundance of caution around their volatile master.

The girl.

His sister.

It was abnormal, unnatural, and while many purebloods had married inside their family out of trying to keep the bloodline pure, never would their immediate siblings be involved. Ultimately though, it was not much of a surprise. There were stories, rumors once again passed down by their parents of Tom Riddle having a twin long ago that had disappeared without a trace, stories of the charismatic girl passed on from the first Death Eaters to their sons and daughters. Stories of the loving girl who had treated them with kindness and protected them from her brother's wrath, as well as protecting him from himself, but when she was gone, there was no one to buffer their Lord's cruelty. There was no one to keep him from succumbing to insanity. The girl that was thought to be entirely too close to her brother was thought to be dead, and with her, any shred of humanity that had festered within the Dark Lord's heart.

But here she was, the girl of myth was sitting on their Lord's lap, kissing him, and loving him, and touching him. Hardly anyone could believe it, but some dared to hope for the life their parents and their grandparents spoke in hushed whispers of. This girl, now their Mistress, may very well save them from death at the hands of their Lord. As they watched the smile they thought him previously incapable of spread across his face, they thought this with whimsical hearts as the small girl dwarfed by his sheer body size made their Dark Lord laugh lowly into the curls just like his own.

~.O.~

**Suspicions**

_Hogwarts Express_

"Hermione!" A tall lanky boy with messy black hair collided with the petite girl, almost knocking her over in laughter, "Where have you been?"

"Hi, Harry," she said, chuckling as they boarded the train while winding her arm around his tall neck as he grabbed her small bag, "You know I've been in France with my parents, I just haven't had time to write to anyone I've been so busy."

"You could've at least given us a hint that you were still alive," he said, giving her an admonishing look as she tried to not be annoyed at his prying and insistant questions.

"How've you been Harry?" she asked as she sat next to Ron in the maroon compartment, giving him a light squeeze and smiling as his face took on an uncharacteristic blush. Harry took a seat next to Ginny, sitting closer than they had the previous years. "You still having the dreams?"

He got this little frown between his eyes that made him look adorable, Ginny putting her hand on his knee as Ron tensed next to her but said nothing.

"Sometimes, but they're mostly bits and pieces, now it's more just feelings sometimes and emotions that aren't mine," he hesitated, Ginny's grip tensed on his knee. "He doesn't feel like he used to."

Hermione gave him a confused look, but knowing exactly what he meant, "What do you mean?"

"He… doesn't feel as erratic as he used to. He feels saner, or as sane as a _Dark Lord_ can be."

"Well that makes sense, there's not as many raids as there used to be. What's so bad about it?"

"He's planning something 'Mione," Ron spoke for the first time since she stepped on the train, his long hair falling into his eyes boyishly.

"And so is Dumbledore," Harry interjected after a few moments of digestive silence, and Hermione's head snapped to him from where she had been lost in thought looking out the window. "He took me with him to see Horace Slughorn, an old potions teacher, Snape is taking the Defense Against the Dark Arts position."

"Professor Snape, Harry." Hermione said sneering, remembering the large biased irritating man, distracted again. _Dumbledore doesn't expect Severus to live past this year Tommy, not in Hogwarts._ She reached out to her brother's mind.

_You already know everything I would kill him for, he will live, my sister. The old man doesn't know he swore loyalty to you._

"Do you know what?" Hermione asked Harry, desperate for information she could pass on to her brother.

He frowned again, suddenly grabbing his forehead and looking out the door of the compartment to where Draco had just passed, "No, but he wants me to go somewhere with him later this year. What was weird too, his hand was turning black." he replied, continuing to look towards the empty hall.

Hermione's body went cold, "His hand was black?"

"Yeah, and there was a white spot on one of his fingers like a ring and the black branched out like the hand was shriveling up."

Hermione's jaw clenched, _Get all the Horcruxes. Keep Nagini close and don't let her be seen by anyone other than Severus and Draco._

..

_Hogwarts, Potions_

Walking into potions and seeing Horace Slughorn where Severus should have been was like an ice pick being rammed into the namesake's solid substance, that certain crack and break you know is eventual. Something was going to happen that Slughorn being here was crucial to the start of, Hermione could feel it. Him being here was the certainty that Dumbledore expected Severus to not be back next year, he thought he would lay his life down for him in order to win this war. Hermione would not allow that to happen. Would not allow him to lay down his life for her, nor anyone else no matter the promises he made. Especially a man who deceives by pretending to be good, when in reality, he is the one to send people off to their deaths.

"Hello, Draco," she sidled up beside him as he gave an uncharacteristically soft smile a Slytherin wouldn't normally give a Gryffindor.

"My lady," he says while keeping his attention focused on Slughorn's large frame wobbling up to the three steaming cauldrons, inclining his head slightly all the while as Harry and Ron shot her questioning looks as to why she was talking to the _enemy_.

"Does anyone know what these potions might be?" Slughorn starts, his ridiculous hat sitting atop his head as he just looked to the kids in front of him, nobody raised their hands.

"You know Draco," Hermione whispered quietly as Slughorn looked expectantly at them all, not at all like Severus who would be calling them _utter imbeciles_ by now, "Severus taught us these years ago."

"Miss. Granger," Slughorn called on her, interrupting Draco's retort, "Would you be so kind?"

Pushing down her irritation at his high voice, she took her place in front of the first cauldron, "Amortentia, said to be the most powerful love potion in the world. Supposed to be the one thing that can attract anyone you want to you with even just a drop." She said, distracted by the scent and not even attempting to pull away.

"And what does it smell like to you Miss. Granger?" Slughorn asked, breaking Hermione from her trance when she heard something indistinguishable in his voice.

She met his eyes, saying the words that would cement her old professor's suspicions, as well as Dumbledore's but she could care less at the moment, "Bourbon," Slughorn flinched, "mint," he fought not to take a step back, "and fresh falling snow." His mouth gaped open slightly, and he fought his legs to stay in place and not go running to the Headmaster that very second.

Hermione turned on her heel to walk back next to a smirking Draco, "You just started something didn't you?"

"I sure did, lovie."

Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances behind the two, Harry holding a tatty old book with familiar black ink writing across the righthand corner.

..

"Albus," Slughorn's hand shook as he poured scotch into a tumbler before the man's office desk, "You didn't tell me when I agreed to come back that I would have Tom's sister in my class."

"So it is her?" Dumbledore asked for once without that insufferable twinkle in his eye as he looked every bit his age.

"Albus what is going on?" McGonagall asked from her seat in beside the new potions master, "Who are you both talking about?"

"Hermione, Minerva," Albus replied, "Hermione Riddle and Hermione Granger."

"She said the same words as the first time I set the assignment all those years ago," Slughorn chimed in distractedly, lost in his thoughts.

Realization dawned on her face, her body slumping back as she fought not to panic or faint, "How is this possible? She disappeared over 50 years ago."

Dumbledore runs a hand over his face, "I did something."

"What did you do Albus?"

He hesitated, "I made a spell that went wrong. It was supposed to make her into a different person, someone that would not help Tom. I guess it did, just in the wrong century, and from what Horace has told us she retains her memories from her first life. I thought it would keep Tom from becoming too powerful, but I was wrong, it only made him more unstable. The year that she was gone was the year that Tom made his presence known, the year that all those deaths occurred at the hands of the hordes of the Death Eaters."

"Dear Merlin," Slughorn said, knocking back his drink.

Minerva sighed, "Oh, Albus. They were twins, you know good and well what that means within the wizarding world. The bond they share. She is the only person who made him see reason, you didn't see it as much as I did. You were their professor, I was their classmate. She is more powerful than any of us, and now she has the power to control the most feared wizard since Grindelwald. You did this Albus, all we can do now is wait and see what she will do after being separated from the one person they both had and loved."

"Just wait," he repeated, taking on the weary expression of a man who has lived too long. His gaze turned towards his blackening hand.

~.O.~

**Choices**

_Malfoy Manor_

_Tom's Chambers_

"I don't want Draco to be involved in this Tommy," Hermione said one day, laying in a thin night dress on Tom's green silk laden bed. _Their_ bed now. She had obliviated the muggle parents who had given birth to her, who had genuinely loved her and she them, but she loved Tom all that much more. The least she had done for them, as she took the only daughter they had ever known and raised for sixteen years was replace her with a new muggle Hermione. A young one they could love fully and keep close to them.

"Why not, love?" Tom asked from his position at the mahogany desk, bent over doing paperwork pertaining to Ministry officials and bribes. "He has been trained to be one of our Death Eaters since birth."

Hermione sighed while sliding off the high bed so her feet could sink silently in the black fur rug to wrap her arms around Tom's neck, looking over his shoulder. "Being raised into it, and choosing to become a dark wizard are two very different things."

Pulling back, Tom set down his quill and pulled Hermione down into his lap, nuzzling the underside of her neck to kiss her jaw. "We had made two horcruxes by the time we were his age."

She laughed softly against his lips, sinking her hands into his soft hair, "He will be my knight, I will put him in the Ministry and he can choose if he wants to be a part of the violence. He's just a boy, he wasn't meant to _ravage..._ " she hissed, pulling his hair back roughly, making him chuckle huskily as she trailed her own lips down his jaw, large hands bruising her hips, "the world like we are."

"Ravage indeed, dearie." Hermione squealed as she was picked up into the air.

..

_Malfoy Manor Ballroom_

_Death Eater Meeting_

"Will you Draco Lucius Malfoy be loyal to your lady, to do everything in your power to ensure her and her Lord Brother's assent into power?"

"I do," he didn't hesitate.

Hermione put her red lips to Draco's bare left arm, and on it appeared the same image as the one on her's and Severus', the Dark Mark with the addition of the lavender.

The Death Eaters were mesmerized to witness the second of it's kind, The Knights, being made by warmth and compassion, rather than the agonizing pain that made the flowerless Dark Mark so similar to the Cruciatus curse. Looking to their Dark Lord, once again many thought that maybe things would have been different if she had not disappeared so long ago, taken from him. Maybe they wouldn't have become the violent creatures they were today. Seeing the utter open adoration upon Lord Voldemort's face, many were still taken by surprise as they thought they would never get used to the emotion so clear on the man that had tortured them all at one time or another. Maybe they could come to love him, and idolized him. But now, as they look even closer, they know that he is no longer the one that solely decides their decisions. The girl kissing the blond haired boy on the cheek is the one that truly rules them, and is more their Dark Mistress than he will ever be their Dark Lord again.

~.O.~

**Secret Meetings**

_Gryffindor Tower_

Quidditch was never a sport Hermione had liked, nor had Tom. It was just a bunch of witches and wizards flying around on broomsticks, dodging and chasing big and little balls. Although, the after parties provided very good cover for clandestine meetings with potion masters that everyone called a dungeon bat, especially when said children were hooting and hollering at the red haired boy and annoying chit of a girl snogging at the center of said party.

Slipping away, Hermione made her way downstairs to a shadowed empty room overlooking the dark lake. Leaning against the stone wall, she closed her eyes and felt out for Severus' magic with her mind. Slightly caressing the strands, she waited for him to come to her. After so long apart, Hermione still felt the hole in her chest when she can not reach out and touch her brother's warm skin that never seemed to become cold, so the other man in her life she was growing to love would do perfectly. Suddenly, she was enveloped in that same heat she had been fantasizing about, arms wrapped in soft black velvet resting across her ribcage beneath her breasts.

"You wanted me love?" his breath rustled her hair, his unique scent of potions ingredients and spices invading her senses.

"I wanted to be held."

"Happy to oblige, though I do not know how your Lord Brother would think of our embraces ."

She chuckled, "My brother already knows of our affections Severus, I don't keep secrets from him, nor do I want to. As long as we include him from time to time he won't get jealous." Her arms went to rest in line with his, their fingers intertwining, "Do you have issue with that?"

"As long as it gives me you, I take issue from nothing."

The sounds of the party upstairs was suddenly amplified as someone opened the Common Room door, "You should go before someone comes looking for me." She told him as she turned in Severus' arms. "Are you still coming to Slughorn's party? Tom will be using Cormac McLaggen's body to check on everything for himself."

"Wouldn't miss it." He drawled, kissing her on the corner of her mouth and disappearing in a twirl of billowing robes.

"Hermione?" She heard her name being called, an inky black head blending in with the shadows behind him standing up at the middle of the spiral staircase, "What are you doing down here?"

"Just wanted some alone time, Harry," she replied, snaking her arm through his, leading him back up the stones.

"Were you talking to someone? I thought I heard a guy's voice?"

"Nope, just me."

..

_Slug Club Party_

"You know," Hermione said while straightening Tom's collar, "I never liked blondes very much." Seeing Tom's smirk on Cormac McLaggen's face was very, unusual to say the least. Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by Slughorn wobbling up to them, slapping Tom on the back.

"You clean up good my boy," he said, the faint smell of firewhiskey on his breath. Looking to Hermione, he noticeably flinched and back up a step as Tom took her hand, "Miss. Granger."

Hermione smiled with as much hidden glee as she could manage, but some was determined to spill out, "Professor," she purred, watching as he nodded and fled to chug more firewhiskey, Tom steering her towards the drinks table. Seeing Harry hovering behind her brother she ran a hand down his chest, kissing the corner of his mouth. "Go check on how Draco is doing with the Vanishing Cabinet."

He smirked, "Yes, dear," he kissed her hand before sweeping away in a twirl of black robes much like Severus that the real Cormac could never pull off.

"Really, 'Mione. _McLaggen_?" Harry asked her as soon as he was able, pulling her behind a sheer golden curtain that surprisingly offered more privacy than was shown.

"Yes Harry," Hermione chuckled, "Cormac asked me, and you didn't think to ask before he did when you didn't have an escort." Hermione felt Severus getting close, as well as the scent of herbs making it's way towards them.

He blushed as the incredulousness faded from his body, "Touche." Suddenly the curtain was pulled back with a snap, and there stood Severus in all his menacing ebony glory, decked out in slightly more formal robes with splashes of green stitching that Hermione had given to him as an early Yuletide gift.

"Potter," he spat, "Come with me," his eyes softened as well as his tone as Harry walked out with a huff, looking at Hermione, "As beautiful as ever, my lady." Putting a hand to his jaw and running her hand down the slight stubble Hermione smiled, "Thank you dear." As her knight stalked towards her friend, a presence made itself known by wrapping his arms around her small waist, kissing just behind her ear on the spot that never failed to make her moan. "Everything going to plan, brother?"

"Absolutely," he replied, sliding his large hands that, even in polyjuiced form lost none of their sneakiness, into the hollows of her hips while drawing them back to feel the hardness of his erection.

Gasping lowly as not to draw attention while heat flooded both their bodies, Hermione slid her arm around Tom's neck as if to keep him from moving away, drawing him up to hover just above her lips. "Severus knows that you are aware of our relationship," she purred, and Tom desperately wanted to capture the dark maroon lips just within reach, "You will love him for me, won't you my brother?" she asked, her sweet breath flooding Tom's senses, knowing she could never gift him with a better present than the one she was now.

He met the eyes that matched his within every detail, tangling a hand in her voluminous curls as he wetly kissed her neck, "As you will it sister." he met her lips in a flurry of passion as they sought to remain quiet and sequestered against the stone wall for the remainder of the party. "I would burn the world for you."

~.O.~

**Cherished Promises**

_Malfoy Manor_

_Tom's Chambers_

_Christmas_

The shapes of three people seemed to merge as one, lying in the bed of green silk under an enchanted canopy of the full moon and stars that cast a light glow over the three lovers. Lying in-between her two men, Tom says they have a gift for Hermione, nodding to Severus on her other side.

Propping herself up on one elbow, she stared at the small velvet box he handed her, kissing her knuckles. Opening it to see a shining emerald teardrop, two small snakes winding about each side to come to a point at the tip, her voice became watery . "Tom… Severus..." Severus pulled it from the velvet and pushed it onto her left forefinger, turning her hand and kissing her pulsepoint.

"This is our promise Hermione," he said, dark eyes smouldering.

"We promise to love you…" Tom continued.

"And cherish you…"

"And always stay by your side in the darkest of days."

Placing her hand on each of their jaws, she said, "I love you both so much." She kissed the corner of their mouths, not knowing what to say to their joint declarations. Tom slid down her body, placing mussed waves upon her naked breasts, Severus slid his arm over her hip and Tom's shoulders, their large bodies about dwarfing her smaller one entirely when they lay in such a way but to Hermione all it felt was safety.

Tom and Severus thoughts both began wondering as they felt the comforting beat of Hermione's heart slowing in her sleep, the weight of Severus' hand caressing Tom's shoulder, and Tom's doing the same to Severus' pale hip.

Fifty years Tom had been separated from his sister, and every moment had been excruciating. Tom supposed he would have never turned out as feared as he was now though, and that was thanks to Dumbledore as much as he hated to admit it. Hermione had always kept his head for him when he got lost in his anger, always there to make sure he didn't do something that would cost him to be seen as anything more than the charming facade he had long since tossed aside. Now, he ruled by fear and intimidation rather than love and admiration that was now Hermione's job. To gain the love of his Death Eaters. Much like his sister he did believe that while fear motivates many people, love can be even more powerful to inspire infinite loyalty in the face of death, shown by the adoration on Severus' face now as he looked upon his sister's. Staring up to her, Tom knows that he certainly couldn't resist her for long if he were his one of their Death Eaters, she could be even more manipulative than him in the way that she could get anyone to do anything with just one look if they so much as liked her much less loved her.

For decades people had shunned Severus either by his appearance or the mark on his arm, denied physical and emotional contact. Not anymore. He had finally found his place in the world, with two of the most powerful people in it, and he knew that it would have never happened if he hadn't endured the hardships he had gone through. He, like Tom, would never let her go now.

~.O.~

**Motherly Instincts**

_Great Hall_

"He's hiding something," Harry suddenly said in the middle of Ron raving about Quidditch, Hermione having tuned both of them out smiling at Draco as he took his seat at the Slytherin table, and to Severus who passed by to the Head Table. "I can feel it."

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione said calmly, hiding her irritation with his incessant need to think all Slytherins were evil. "Just because he can be a right git doesn't mean he's evil."

"Why are you always defending him?" Harry asked, turning his anger toward her as he had every time she had said something to discredit his thoughts on the matter. "Do you like him or something? How can you? He's always calling you a mudblood and-"

She sighed internally, cutting him off, "I don't Harry, but you're giving me a migraine. Slughorn's a Slytherin, how come you trust him? Unless you found something in his memories to validate Dumbledore's suspicions?" she asked, but he was turned back towards Draco who was already leaving the hall.

"I'm going to follow him," he said, jumping up and trying to appear as if wasn't running to catch up with the blond haired boy.

"Harry!" Hermione called after him knowing he was ignoring her now, groaning in irritation she turned to the head table, catching Severus' eye.

_Follow us._

He nodded.

Striding gracefully out of the hall after telling Ron to stay at the table with Ginny, Hermione followed the call of Draco's Dark Mark that acted as a beacon to her with it's distinctive magical signature. The hall was filled with water, no doubt coming from one of Moaning Myrtle's fits. Lifting the velvet robes she had taken to wearing like the other Pureblooded girls and older years, Hermione walked through the thin water leading into the girl's bathroom where Draco somehow ended up. Flashes of light filled the large dark space, along with two male voices throwing curses and hexes at each other, missing each one. Except the last one thrown by the boy with the scar on his forehead.

"Sectumsempra!" Dread filled Hermione as well as fear as she heard that word, seeing Draco fall to the water surrounding him. Blood seeping through the pristine shirt in seconds from the spell that Hermione knew had to have been from the potions book of Severus' she had allowed the boy to look through, never thinking that he would be so stupid as to actually try out one of them.

"Draco," she whispered dropping her robes, unaware of the water weighing them down andfeeling faint as well seeing so much blood on the crisp white shirt the boy wore. "Draco!" suddenly burst out of her mouth as she appeared beside him, her glowing hands hovering above his gasping chest as Draco's green eyes met her's, his white hand seeking out her skin and holding tight. His fist clenched the fabric of her dress between his fingers when it became clear both her hands wer occupied.

"I - I didn't mean to," she heard, faintly from the boy who threw the curse, hearing as if she were underwater, "I- I didn't know what it did."

Hearing that last part and feeling Severus getting closer, Hermione's face transformed into something Harry had never seen before as he was filled with fear. "Go!" she growled, her eyes glowing red, anguish and rage filling her voice, "Leave!" she screamed as Severus made it into the bathroom and knelt next to his godson, beginning to heal him. Turning her attention back to the boy underneath her, her hands roamed over his wounds as well as Severus' wand, the echoing of his healing song and the glow of her healing hands filling the bathroom until Draco fell to sleep due to his blood loss and exhaustion. He never once let go of his death grip on his mistress all the while he was transferred to the hospital wing.

..

"He will be sentenced to detention for the rest of the year, with Mr. Filch."

"I want him expelled!" Lucius roared at Dumbledore, leaping to his feet as Narcissa sat beside his long legs, pale as a ghost. Hermione stood beside the window along with Severus as they stared down to the Black Lake feeling nauseous, although she knew no cause as the blood of others certainly wasn't anything new to her. Severus reached his mind to touch hers briefly, making her smile as McGonagall watched them from the beginning of the meeting as they had both come from Draco's side with identical blank faces, her expression one that was absolutely unidentifiable.

"I understand your anger Lucius," Dumbledore said calmly but uncomfortably, suddenly aware of Hermione's stare now boring on the side of his bearded face, "But it is impossible to have Harry expelled from Hogwarts."

Lucius was becoming an unhealthy shade of white, as opposed to someone normally turning red from anger. Watching him about to yell something else, Hermione spoke up, "Would you like to see Draco again?"

Everyone jumped and snapped their heads to where she leaned her hip against the stone of the wall, no one having expected her to speak up. Lucius' jaw worked as he stared at the insufferable man in front of him who stared at his mistress with a twinkle in his eye.

Narcissa stood, grabbing her husband's arm, "Please." McGonagall could only stare in shock as the teenage girl made a Malfoy back down, Severus following behind them as a dark shadow.

"She cares for them," she told her old friend, knowing from the frown he was trying to figure out a puzzle.

"She's not like her brother." Was all the Headmaster said.

~.O.~

The small group walked in silence to the Hospital Wing, broken only by Hermione's voice when they came to a standstill as they saw a raven haired boy standing by Draco's sleeping form.

"Get out." Her voice commanded obedience.

Harry's head shot up, taking a step away from the wounded boy, his face displaying his guilt, "Hermione I-"

Her voice sounded not at all like her own, "Get out Harry. His parents would like to speak with him."

He looked behind her to Lucius who had calmed an ignored the boy who had almost killed his only son, Narcissa who simply had cold disdain written about her beautiful face, and Severus who was staring at the boy with a look of utter loathing. "Why are you speaking for them?"  
"That is none of your business," she hissed, walking up to him, "He is just a boy, Harry. He is not Death Eater. Use your head, he would have hit you with at least one of his curses with the intent to hurt if he was a Death Eater. Now leave. You have done more than enough damage."

~.O.~

**Preparation and Battle**

Hermione was still mad the next day when Harry had come to apologize. "Hermione will you please talk to me?" She said nothing to him, only continued to look out into the sun lightened Black Lake, watching the Giant Squid dance lazily with her arms crossed in front of her stomach. "Right. You don't have to say anything. Dumbledore wants me to go somewhere with him to find a Horcrux, we're leaving right now and we'll be back tonight. I just thought you should know, I've already told Ron."

She still wouldn't look at him, and Harry didn't know why she was so upset over someone she hated. Or didn't as it turned out. He kissed her cheek and smiled at the side of her face sadly as he walked back up to the castle towards the Astronomy Tower. Hermione followed him with her eyes until he was out of sight and got up onto her feet, slightly off balance and dizzy, light on her feet as walked to the Hospital Wing for Draco.

"Wake up, love," Draco's eyes fluttered open as Hermione brushed his short hair off his forehead, taking a seat on the edge of the white mattress.

"Mistress," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes like a little boy with his fists and attempting to sit up.

"No, no," Hermione pushed him back down as he winced a bit. "You don't have to get up just yet. Will you be ready tonight?"

His eyes widened fractionally, "Already?" he paused, " I will be ready, my Lady Hermione."

"You're a good boy Draco," she smiled and grabbed his pale hand that shook slightly, "I'll not make you do anything you're not ready for darling," she gave it a squeeze, "I will be with Severus in the Astronomy Tower until nightfall, I would like to be prepared when Dumbledore comes back to Hogwarts."

"Why do you and the Dark Lord hate Dumbledore so much?"

"Because he took our lives from us, my love. Sleep well," she kissed his forehead before silently stealing back out of the Wing once Madame Pomfrey came to check on the once again sleeping boy.

..

The students were rounded up out of their houses during the night, most with their robes over their pajamas and sporting confused and disgruntled faces as to why they were risen into the cold Great Hall. Upon his Mistress' orders, Severus told all Head of Houses to get them woken up, and that the Dark Lord was planning to attack that night. Later, if you had asked any of the children what had happened, they would tell you was parts of a story, certain people tell of certain phrases, curses, or people that were there, but never the whole as many were either too young or too shadowed.

_An unexpected person stood next to the Head of Slytherin House…_

Hermione Granger, was what started the fascinating tale of a battle and the even more unexpected events to occur.

"Tom will be here within the hour, I'm sure Dumbledore won't be long now either." Hermione whispered to him as he nods and his eyes lift to someone behind her.

"Severus what is the meaning of this?" McGonagall asked the man, glancing towards Hermione who had just turned around.

"The Dark Lord plans to take hold of Hogwarts tonight Minerva, I had just found out this evening before initiating protocols," his smooth voice continued, ignoring the growing fear on the older woman's face, "I have already alerted the Order and Dumbledore, I hope they will be here by the time they attack. He and Potter had not sent a Patronus in response."

And then screams of the children in the back of the hall echoed, causing the teachers and the older years to pull out their wands, the younger ones following suit even as they new nothing of defensive nor offensive spells. Death Eaters had infiltrated the castle, throwing curses and jinxes at anyone closest them as Hogwarts teachers shot their own, albeit non lethal ones but curses nonetheless, and then they were silenced.

"Enough!" a handsome young man clad in flattering black robes had entered the room, a calm demeanor in the face of the cowering fear and sobs of the children in front of him. "Grab the teachers and stop messing around." The people of the school were shaken by the sheer power this man gave off, magic wise and voice wise. How could a man such as this command hundreds of Death Eaters who now also lined the entirety of the room, and was not Lord Voldemort?

The large gleaming familiar of this man and the woman standing beside the Potions Master wove a line straight through the hall, children yelping and cowering into their friends as they parted as if an invisible hand pushed them fluidly aside. The part everyone would remember was Hermione Granger, the resident know-it-all, book loving, curly haired girl only smiling as the snake slowly made her way to her. Her graceful dance down the steps as her wand swung in a circle, starting from her head down to taper off at her waist. In a lovely bit of magic any of the girls would kill for, her shiny hair made it's way into a pretty bun and her robes fanned out into a fitted lace trim dress to replace her muggle shirt and jeans as she swept fluidly to meet Nagini with her dark shadow following silently behind her.

"Darling!" she swooned, holding her hand to her hissing daughter.

" _Mother,"_ she wound herself around Hermione's waist and neck.

A flash of blue came next, teachers ripped from Death Eaters, kids all surrounded by a shielding spell by Professor Dumbledore who had apparated onto the grounds with Harry Potter at his arm, only able to stand, watch, and listen to the battle that would surround them as Death Eaters trained their wands on the Order Members apparating in as backup.

Hermione's face turned dark as everything stilled, walking to the protected children, Order members eyed her with no idea how to proceed let her hold out her hand, "Draco." He let her lead him to Tom as she wove her arm around her brother's, Draco behind her, Severus to her left, Tom to her right.

"Attack," her cold voice rang, and curses flew, and the battle ensued.

The Death Eaters won. Casualties were made by anyone over seventeen, and Albus Dumbledore succumbed to the afterlife at the hands of the Dark Lord and his Dark Mistress.

..

_Malfoy Manor, Ballroom_

_3 months later_

Hermione and Tom sat on their velvet lined thrones at the top of the ballroom dias, surrounded by snakes, eagles, badgers, and lions all dancing and barely dressed in celebration of having yet another revel. Dancing drunkenly, most people were high on the magic that was visibly sparking in the air, all except Hermione with her stomach, slightly swollen and resting upon her hips, and Tom and Severus who both only wished to get their wife to themselves.

"Do you like the world we have made, my Hermione?" Tom asked from his throne, ankle over knee in pristine black slacks, his bare muscled chest drawing more than enough attention from the women surrounding them, and a fair few of the men staring as long as they dare lest his lace clad queen catch them and lose herself to hormones. Severus in much the same boat.

She smiled as she kissed his hand, "I love it, my love." Her eyes turned to Severus, who smiled and kissed her palm. "Do you like our world, my Darling?"

He smiled like he had never before, the weight of a master who used and abused him finally dead and able to lead his own life with the other he had forgiven, knowing only Hermione would allow for him only the best. "A world with you by my side is utopia, my love," he replied in his deep baritone and helped her stand, finally tired of the festivities surrounding them to lead the way through the happily oblivious crowd. Tom, lead by Hermione's hand, brushed Draco's bare shoulders where he stood pleasuring a red-head alongside Harry who was with his own.

Hermione now ruled a world that bowed down to her and her husbands, either in deep seated fear, or love, but eternal loyalty.

Behind the trio followed their euphoric hissing familiar, " _Family again. Family grows. Together family safe. Safe now._ "


End file.
